Airframe

by Michael Crichton | Literature & Fiction |
ISBN: 0679446486 Global Overview for this book
Registered by PaigeTurner124 on 8/18/2002
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2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by PaigeTurner124 on Sunday, August 18, 2002
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Released on Thursday, March 18, 2004 at Taco Cabana - Fredericksburg Rd. and Wurzbach in San Antonio, Texas USA.

Released to Synergy at tonights meet-up.

Journal Entry 3 by synergy from San Antonio, Texas USA on Friday, March 19, 2004
I've always liked Crichton books and this book was looking lonely when we were leaving the meetup tonight... :-) Onto the TBR stack(s) it goes. Thanks for coming to the meetup! Hope to see you again next time.

Journal Entry 4 by synergy from San Antonio, Texas USA on Thursday, August 19, 2004
2004 Book #45 Airframe by Michael Crichton

I've liked Crichton since I looked up his books when I became addicted to the t.v. show he worked with, "ER." This book was different from what I'd read of his. It was interesting in a way, but books like these I feel there should be more mystery as to who was causing all the problems. It's been a couple of weeks since I read this one, but if I remember correctly the possible reasoning was given away or highly hinted at fairly early. It sort of took away the thrill for me.

Two things I wanted to point out. One is thanks to the nerd in me. In the story there's a character who's new to aerodynamics and an explanation is given to him on how an airplace achieves lift. I remember reading in a "Scientific American" mag or somesuch that the theory given in this book was possibly being disproven. Considering it has a copyright of 1996, though, I didn't hold it against Crichton. ;)

The second thing is something that really irked me about a character in the story. As most everyone reading this review knows, crashing planes under any circumstances are always highly sensationalized despite the statistically low number of people killed in comparison to other ways of dying. Well, the character in question was a reporter and from a sensationalist "news" program at that. To me she characterized what a lot of so-called journalists have become. She was in search of an "angle" that would distort and shock and the more hideous she could make the story appear, the happier she seemed. Her point of view on reporting:
"The older guys thought context so important, they seemed to regard it as a kind of moral or ethical obligation. Jennifer disagreed. Because when you cut out all the sanctimonious bullshit, context was just spin, a way of pumping the story-and not a very useful way, because context meant referring to the past. Jennifer had no interest in the past; she was one of the new generation that understood that gripping television was now, events happening now, a flow of images in a perpetual unending electronic present...The past was dead and gone. Who cared what you ate yesterday?"
Later in the book it makes it obvious how much some news people stage what they report by complaining about how "uncooperative" an interviewee is being.
"he couldn't punch it. He didn't seem to understand she was making an assembled piece, that the average shot would be less than three seconds, and they would cut to him for a sentence, or a fragment of a sentence, before they cut to something else. Rogers was earnest, trying to be helpful, but he was burying her in detail she couldn't use, and background she didn't care about."
Sadly, that's what our news has come down to. Something pre-packaged and no one cares for the details. The only thing that mattered in a lot of the characters in this book is how things could be made to appear and not how they actually were.

As I said, this book wasn't as thrilling, so I thought it just an average ok book to read.

Journal Entry 5 by synergy at Babes Old Fashioned Burgers on Fredericksburg in San Antonio, Texas USA on Thursday, August 19, 2004
Released on Thursday, August 19, 2004 at Babes Old Fashioned Burgers on Fredericksburg in San Antonio, Texas USA.

This book finally got read after nearly having it 5 months. Back into the BookCrossing pool it goes! I hope someone at our mothly get together picks it up in an hour or two. :)

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